Plus ça change

At the tale end of last week it was widely report that the Labour Chief Whip, Nick Brown was unhappy with his lazy Labour colleagues. He told a press gallery lunch that "It is not unreasonable for the electorate and taxpayers to expect their MPs to be attending debates in the House of Commons or to vote when they get there" and announced his intention to crack the proverbial whip.

Thus I found it highly amusing to see that the one time leadership candidate of the Left, John McDonnell tabled an early day motion stating,

That this House notes press reports that the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend is planning to bring forward rules for Labour hon. Members on how many times they must vote in a Parliamentary Session; and therefore urges that in future procedures are put in place to ensure that abstentions are able to be recorded in any vote in the House.

You have to love the style of that one surely? Essentially, McDonnell is calling for the ability of all those lazy MPs to pick up a phone and say they abstain on vote X, Y or Z, and this have it recorded that they did vote by not voting, and so they can all remain lazy bastards.

After all, how dare anyone suggest that MPs, especially Labour MPs, do what they're paid to do and attend and vote on debates? I mean, they've got more important things to do than vote, like getting their legover in their office with the mistress/hooker and recording it in pictures for the world to see at a later date.